Most game birds are also galliforms, including grouse, partridges, pheasants, quails, ptarmigans, and wild turkeys.

Willow ptarmigan, rock ptarmigan and spruce grouse are a few of the ground-dwelling birds.

The biologist and writer Julian Huxley, grandson of Darwin's great friend and supporter Thomas Henry Huxley, thought that the white plumage of the male ptarmigan might distract a predator away from the female.